Comic-Book Heroine to Make Puerto Rico Proud

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A sketch by Emilio Lopez of the heroine of a planned comic book.CreditCreditEdgardo Miranda-Rodriguez/Somos Arte

By George Gene Gustines

June 10, 2016

When Superman made his debut in Action Comics No. 1 in 1938, he had to wait until the next year to take part in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The new Puerto Rican heroine La Borinqueña, who is secretly a college student named Marisol Rios De La Luz, will have a float in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday, despite having made her first appearance at a news conference just last month. Her comic doesn’t even come out until October.

La Borinqueña is the creation of the graphic designer Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, who is a community activist and a comic book fan. Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez, whose family is from Puerto Rico and who grew up in the South Bronx, has always found the diversity of heroes lacking. “Latinos are underrepresented in all forms of media,” he said. “If we don’t tell our own stories, no one else will.”

Comic book publishers have been striving to change. At DC Comics, the lesbian Batwoman will be fighting alongside Batman starting this month, while Cyborg, who is black, will star in a new series in September. Marvel has had success with its Muslim-American Ms. Marvel, the Korean-American Hulk and the female Thor. But its biggest coup may have been enlisting Ta-Nehisi Coates, who won the National Book Award for “Between the World and Me,” to reimagine the Black Panther.

In 2009, Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez helped organize “Marvelous Color,” an exhibition at the African Diaspora Institute in Midtown about the minority superheroes and artists of Marvel Comics. In February, Marvel published a story by him and the musician Darryl McDaniels, from Run-DMC, involving Groot (a laconic hero who resembles a plant) and the historic Ceiba tree of Puerto Rico. The comic brought Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez to the attention of several Puerto Rican groups, including the organizers of the parade.

Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez then started thinking about the heroine who would become La Borinqueña and set about gathering the creative team for the comic. “I fought really hard to put together a roster that reflected the best of the comic book industry and the best of the Puerto Rican community,” he said. The contributors include the illustrators Elliot Fernandez and Emilio Lopez. Rags Morales, who worked on a reboot of Superman in 2011, will provide a so-called variant cover, which is printed in smaller quantities and is catnip to collectors.

The inspiration for La Borinqueña connects the past and the present. Her costume was modeled after the Grito de Lares, Puerto Rico’s revolutionary flag from 1868, and her very name is the title of the commonwealth anthem of Puerto Rico. As for contemporary sources, Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez cites “the sense of humor and everygirl appeal” of Gina Rodriguez in the sitcom “Jane the Virgin” and Rosario Dawson in “Daredevil,” in which she plays a strong and selfless nurse.

Works in Progress is a regular feature capturing a project in a formative stage in New York, where invention and reinvention are a constant. Email: wip@nytimes.com

THE PARTICULARS

Project La Borinqueña, a new superhero

Medium Comic book

Driving Force Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, a graphic designer, community activist and comic book fan